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C00002 00002	Things I want to do for a thesis:
C00003 00003	Conversation with Mark Stefik
C00008 00004	Conversation with Mike Genesereth
C00009 00005		Thoughts - 15 May
C00013 ENDMK
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Things I want to do for a thesis:

Basically, goal-driven: A real application program.

Must:
	(Strong) use of RLL

Desired:
	Impact on AI
	Respectable in its domain. (Ie not a toy.)

Considerations:
	Representational vs Learning (vs ...)
	Computational (Reasoning) vs Communicational

Ideas:
	Communication - see page 4.
Conversation with Mark Stefik

(In)Validate a thesis

Problem: Represent (& communicate) a theory

Translate theory from, say, Predicate Calculus, into some operational model.
	Subsumes - Automatic Programming
[Discussion 24-June]
1. Design an experiment to discriminate among theories -- ie the input would
	be a set of theories, and the output said experiment.
  Issues: How to represent a "Theory", together with its ramifications, ...
2. Issues of planning -

Mailed to STEFIK @ PARC & @ SUMEX -- 18:31 20-June
Mark:
	The time has come to start thinking about an eventual thesis topic.
My ideal for said thesis would be some application task which
(1) strongly involved RLL and (2) was of a sufficiently complex nature it could
potentially make a real contribution both to that domain, and to AI in general;
perhaps by pushing at some AI-ish concept (eg use of analogy or meta-level
reasoning, or the appication of large quantities of diverse knowledge).

Do you think the field of Molecular Genetics offers such possibilities?
In your mind, are there major open problems in this domain, waiting only someone's
diligent hard work for solution? 
In what part of this domain would you now probe, if you'd life to life over?
Would they require an almost expert-level knowledge of the domain on my part?
(Are there currently compositories of vast amounts of relevant knowledge
which could be tapped -- such as the library of E Coli strains, and related genes?)

Could we get together sometime in the near future (say early next week) to discuss
this?  Thanks,
	Russ

∂21-Jun-80  1026	Stefik at SUMEX-AIM 	Re: Advice to a Young Scientist   
Date: 21 Jun 1980 1022-PDT
From: Stefik at SUMEX-AIM
Subject: Re: Advice to a Young Scientist  
To:   RDG at SU-AI

In response to your message sent 20 Jun 1980 1831-PDT

Russ,
	I'll be around on Tuesday and Thursday after the VLSI class at
3:30.  Perhaps one of those times would be suitable -- I guess Thursday
might be best for me since there may be things that need doing right away
after the first day of class.  Mark

PS.  You may want to explore the general set of projects in HPP, and list
some of the pros and cons for them; also it would be good to narrow down
your area of interest in terms of AI topics.

PPS.  By way of open issues in MOLGEN, I just submitted two papers to the
AI journal;  drafts of these are available as working papers in the trminal
room as HPP-80-12 & 13.  Both papers have sections sketching areas of future
research in planning.
-------

∂Mailed to STEFIK@SUMEX 12:35 23-June
Ok - I'll plan to see you after class on Thursday then.
(I'll be sitting in on that class, at least for the first few meetings.)
	Thanks
Russ
Conversation with Mike Genesereth

Notations for Communication

Defn: "Notation" relevant to communication, "Representation" for Reasoning

Task: Given model of "hearer" and question, deduce best way of communicating
	this info to him -- i.e. graphs, or predicate calculus, or ...

      Close to pragmatics
	Thoughts - 15 May

	Analogy
One important facet for any intelligent system is the ability to find
and use analogies.
Understanding analogies is, therefore, one of
the main goals of the EURISKO project (see ?).
Especially useful will be deriving new facts in one domain based on
known derivations found in some other domain.
Towards this end we (DBL & I) have devised the game plan which follows.

DBL claims many analogies due to common type of derivation --
	eg same type of proof

Analogy : Inheritance :: Heuristic : Algorithm
(ie use inheritance to infer "guaranteed" things; but analogy
is useful for weaker conjectures...  Sounds like relation between
algorithm and heuristic.)

Task:
My approach will begin by encoding facts about several domains,
in distinct KBs.  These breadth facts should serve as source for
interesting analogies -- or at least that's the hope.

Initially, we will declare (units) U and V to be
"analogous" if there is some slot, S, such that A:S and B:S are EQUAL.
(Provided neither of those values were trivial.)
Eventually we will improve upon this superficial method.
Eg, consider binary relations R such
	R( U:S, V:S )
holds. Consider R beings
=, Subset, ImpliedBy, Generalization ...
and finally Analogous.

Initial Set of Domains
1) Oil Spill - basically because I've already spent a good deal of time creating
	this KB (for the Expert System workshop Summer '80).
2) Planning, esp over the domain of Automatic Programming -- two reasons:
	i) closely related to planning stuff I'm doing with Rand, anyway.
	ii) an interesting area needed for eventual bootstrapping;
		and as such, something I've already spent some time on in RLL.
3) Programming itself -- see two above.

Eventually we should be able to put in facts from MYCIN, and other EMYCIN systems;
and other existing Expert domains.  (medical, legal, ...)
	- realize the basic work will have already been done...